All the Wrong Men and One Perfect Boy: A Memoir by Spike Gillespie

I’d read and enjoyed an essay by Spike in a collection a few months ago and so I was pleased to find her memoir!  Spike tells of growing up with an unloving, strict Catholic father who controlled and shaped her life in profound ways.  As soon as she’s able to, Spike breaks away from her family and spends years dating many men, battling with alcoholism and her resulting personal chaos, and struggling to make it as a writer.  In the process she has a son, and together they experience some of Spike’s worst moments as her quest for love continues.  The writing in All the Wrong Men is very personal, honest, and charismatic.  Highly recommended.  

Atlas of the Human Heart by Ariel Gore

You probably know Ariel Gore from her work on the parenting zine, Hip Mama, or from her other books, zines, and projects.  Atlas of the Human Heart is her memoir, spanning the time from her high school days to age nineteen.  Ariel did a lot more during those years than most of us.  She wound up leaving school after an intense relationship failed and she was sexually assaulted.  Working while she was supposed to be in school, she saved enough money to fly to China.  The majority of the story follows her through several years in China, Tibet, Amsterdam, London, and finally, Italy.  Along the way, Ariel shares relationships with a fascinating array of characters, all of whom contribute to her steps in self-discovery.  Ariel’s writing is strong and passionate, and drew me in immediately.  By far, Atlas of the Human Heart is one of the most personal and engaging books I’ve picked up in a long time.  

Becoming Anna: The Autobiography of a Sixteen-Year-Old by Anna J. Michener

Growing up, Anna suffered severe mental, and sometimes physical abuse from her parents and grandmother.  Although they were highly dysfunctional themselves, they led Anna to believe that she was mentally ill and therefore responsible for all of her family’s problems.  As punishment, she was forced to essentially be a servant for the family.  As a result of her family’s lies, she believed that she was a truly bad and irresponsible person, unworthy of any love or compassion from anyone in her life.  Her family went so far as to lie to mental health professionals in order to have her committed to mental institutions while she was a teenager.  Anna eventually sees her life as it really is while living in the violent and horrible conditions of a state facility.  I was most impressed with Anna’s ability to convey the confusion and pain she experienced on a daily basis, and how she was able to finally escape it all.  

Chicken: A Self-Portrait of a Young Man For Rent by David Henry Sterry

 I heard David Henry Sterry speaking on an NPR program and I was surprised to hear a man talking about being a teenage prostitute and the sexual abuse that can surround that lifestyle, as this is a topic usually reserved for women. As an adult, Sterry decides to recount his time as a teenager in LA, from how he was forced into prostitution and the resulting lifestyle by chance, to his actual work, the family atmosphere surrounding the other teens he worked with, and finally, his decision to leave.  Running along side of that story are flashbacks to his youth and his family relations, which are ultimately the cause of his need to sell himself.  Sometimes I found the flashbacks to be a little distracting because they were so short – sometimes a paragraph in the present, then one in the past, then back to the present, but overall I’m glad that Sterry included them.  Chicken is an unusual book because of Sterry’s ability to recall the humor as well the pain in a story that is often untold by males (and females).

The Day I Went Missing by Jennifer Miller

In this fascinating true story, Jennifer, a successful Hollywood writer, describes her intense relationship with her therapist, David.  Jennifer started seeing him on the recommendation of a friend and wound up making many personal breakthroughs with David’s guidance and unorthodox practices.  As her life begins to take some drastic changes, she finds out that David isn’t what he seems and thus begins the mystery that I’m not going to reveal.  It’s an unbelievable story, written with just the right amount of details creating suspense that kept my interest until the end.  To finish up The Day I Went Missing, Jennifer reflects over her past actions and fills in the final pieces in this puzzle.  My question is when/if Jennifer will ever have a movie made based on her story.  

Emma Goldman: American Individualist by John Chalberg

This short and fairly recent (1991) biography provides a pretty good overview of Emma Goldman’s eventful life.  She was a Russian immigrant who spent her life acting as a speaker and supporter for the Anarchist and Feminist movements in the United States.  From her possible involvement in the assassination of President McKinley to the publication of her controversial Mother Earth magazine, Emma Goldman was viewed as a public enemy and a threat to our nation’s security.  In 1919 she was deported from the United States and went on to write Living My Life, her memoir.  This book would be a good starting point for those interested in either Anarchism or the unique life of Emma Goldman.

Hobo: A Young Man’s Thoughts on Trains and Tramping in America by Eddy Joe Cotton

Hobo shows up at a time when interest in train hopping and travel writing are very popular and common in zines, so I was excited to read this book.  Eddy Joe Cotton walked away from his father and his life in Denver with a few dollars and the clothes on his back.  Over the next few years, he learned the ways of the trains and how to survive in the world outside the mainstream.  Along the way he kept many notes and journals which he later turned into Hobo, which is filled with stories, flashbacks of his family and real life, and many questions about the future.  Hobo also has a glossary of slang, a chart of hobo symbols, as well as many interesting pictures.  Eddy Joe takes the time to research the history of trains and train riders in order to find the real meaning of being a hobo.   Overall, this was a fun book to read and pass the time with.  

Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth by F.C. Ware

 Jimmy Corrigan was a gift to Sean and I was intrigued by it from the first glimpse – a graphic novel, hardcover, with a jacket that folds out into a poster.  On the inside of the front cover there are “general instructions,” and the inside of the back cover includes an apology from the author among other things.  F.C. Ware started this work as a weekly comic strip in a Chicago free paper, and later decided to collect the entire story here in this form.  The plot is Mr. Ware’s autobiographical recounting of meeting his father as an adult, accompanied by dreams and other parallel story themes.  The artwork, at some times simple and at others dense and detailed, is complemented by the striking layout on each page.  Jimmy Corrigan doesn’t take a long time to read, but it is one of those stories that draws you in immediately and involves you directly.

Just Checking: Scenes from the Life of an Obsessive-Compulsive by Emily Colas

Emily Colas uses her humor and skill as a writer to reason away the many obsessive-compulsive behaviors she has developed over the years.  She makes it seem perfectly logical to constantly check the floor, furniture, and everywhere else for blood spots.  What if she accidentally shut one of the cats in the dryer or dishwasher?  Who would want a waiter that has a band-aid on - who knows what is festering underneath there?  Anyway, Emily takes extreme lengths to convince her husband and family that she is ok, so she won’t have to continue treatment for her life-consuming disorder.  From her best moments to her worst, Emily uses this short personal book to help others understand those suffering quietly around us.

Learning Joy From Dogs Without Collars by Lauralee Summer

Growing up, Lauralee spent a lot of time moving between government subsidized apartments and homeless shelters with her mother.  They lived a life in their own world, walking everywhere, making do with what they had, and collecting endless amounts of clutter that they’d inevitably have to leave behind.  Lauralee was a brilliant little girl and often refused to attend school because it was so boring for her.  Eventually the two wind up moving from Oregon to Boston because her mother heard of the educational opportunities there.  Lauralee’s life changes drastically; she finds a program at school that meets her educational needs, and she winds up joining the wrestling team.  Through a stroke of luck, she gets into Harvard and struggles through, continues wrestling with the boys, while her mother continues to be homeless and living in shelters.  The most interesting parts of Learning Joy to me weren’t the facts of how Lauralee lived, but her impressions of society, especially once she got to Harvard and had to deal with many class issues.  Additionally, her views on wrestling, being a woman in a men’s space, pushing her body physically, and being able to form relationships in that setting were well written and definite highlights for me.  

Living at the Edge of the World: A Teenager’s Survival in the Tunnels of Grand Central Station by Tina S. and Jamie Pastor Bolnick

 With the help of Jamie Pastor Bolnick, Tina is able to tell her story of moving into the tunnels of Grand Central with her best friend April when they were teens.  Together they learn how to make it on the streets – growing up, having fun, and dealing with the consequences of their actions.  Both girls become addicted to drugs, resort to selling themselves, and wind up getting abused several times. Eventually April kills herself, leaving Tina painfully alone.  These experiences and people were Tina’s life, as important to her as her family, if not more so.  Tina allows us to understand how this life was a reasonable choice for her at the time and how she struggled to overcome it.  Living at the Edge of the World is a very personal and amazing story that I highly recommend.

A Memoir of Misfortune by Su Xiaokang

After the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, Su Xiaokang was placed on China’s top five most wanted list for both his role in the protests and because of his past political history.  He was smuggled out of China and finally wound up in the United States, having only very limited contact with his wife, Fu Li, and young son, Su Dan, both of whom he was forced to leave behind in China.  Finally, after two years of separation, they are reunited in Princeton, NJ, where Su and the other Chinese exiles are based while they lecture in the US about their plight.  Shortly after their reunion, the family is involved in a car wreck that leaves Fu Li in a coma, from which she finally awakes with brain damage.  Su’s life dramatically changes as he cares for his wife, and he questions all of the events leading up to their current situation that is so full of despair and regret.  I was interested to read Su’s observations about life under the Chinese regime and also his thoughts about life in the US.  I wouldn’t recommend reading this book if you are feeling depressed, though, because some of the longer sections are rather dark.  

Mockingbird Years: A Life In and Out of Therapy by Emily Fox Gordon

As a teenager growing up with academic parents and a life centered around the university, Emily fantasized about life at the local mental hospital and even prowled the grounds with her close friend.  She spent time with various therapists in her youth as she struggled with school and her family and, just as she’s becoming an adult, she has a minor outburst and winds up being sent to the mental hospital of her youth for a few years.  She spends the next ten years primarily living her life centered around therapy, even moving to New York City to follow Dr. Farber, her therapist, when he moves there.  In Mockingbird Years, Emily reveals what went on inside her counseling sessions, in her life, and most importantly, how her therapists influenced and responded to her.  She provides a lot of personal information, as a statement of the facts in relation to her therapy.  I really enjoyed Mockingbird Years and was amazed at Emily’s ability to recall and analyze her life and these situations so well.  

The Only Girl in the Car by Kathy Dobie

I’m always attracted to memoirs written by younger people, especially when they focus on the teen years.  Kathy Dobie goes directly to the topic that most of us would avoid—her promiscuity during adolescence.  Growing up in a family of six kids, Kathy was the oldest girl and was very close in age to her siblings.  They were a tight knit group, with intelligent, caring parents, but Kathy remembers a lack of physical closeness.  As she turns fourteen, she begins to attract the attention of men and does everything she can to cultivate these relationships for that feeling of closeness and intimacy she craves.  She recounts her adventures through young eyes and tells all the painful details as she saw them at the time, including the reactions of her family and peers to her actions.  The Only Girl in the Car is a coming of age story that is unfortunately most likely much more common than not.  

Paper Daughter: A Memoir by M. Elaine Mar

This is the story of M. Elaine Mar, whose family moved from Hong Kong, China to Denver, Colorado when she was only five years old.  Just old enough to remember a safe, happy Chinese life, she was thrust into the cold, competitive American culture.  Her family remained isolated in Denver in the small group of other immigrants while working in her Aunt’s Chinese restaurant, so Elaine was forced to act as a bridge between her family and the English-speaking world.  Often she was scorned by her family for adopting American attitudes, which are in direct conflict with Chinese customs.  At the same time, she had to deal with American school children acting out their parents’ racist beliefs, further lowering her esteem.  In her first novel, Elaine shares the pressures and emotions faced by so many new, young Americans with keen insight and honesty.

Paradise by Larry McMurtry

At the end of his mother’s life, Larry McMurtry found her honesty and revelations about her married life and sexuality abrupt and shockingly out of character.  In Paradise, he reflects on his parent’s life in Archer City, Texas, as he travels on a freight cruise around Tahiti.  The trip is also a first in travel for McMurtry, and his ability to draw similarities between these two seemingly different topics is unique.  I’m a fan of travel writing and thought his observations of “ugly Americanism” and the tourist industry catering to paradise seekers were clever and fitting in his description of the beauty of Tahiti.  Also, he visits the grave of Gauguin there and includes references to his life as an artist and his relationship to the islands and the art he produced because of them.  A very pleasant read.

Planet of the Blind: A Memoir by Stephen Kuusisto

Stephen Kuusisto’s premature birth in 1955 caused him to be legally blind.  He is able to see in an extremely limited capacity, including shapes, colors and sometimes even words with the help of telescopic glasses pressed to the page.  His parents decided to treat him as a seeing child so that he wouldn’t be disadvantaged in a world that shunned people with disabilities.  He attended public school, rode a bicycle, and studied in Europe – all the while learning to hide his true self.  Eventually, with the freedom and security provided by a guide dog named Corky, Stephen discovers himself and is able to teach, write, and work with others at a school for guide dogs.  Planet of the Blind provides both a highly personal and critical self-anaylsis.

Sex: The Measure of All Things: A Life of Alfred C. Kinsey by Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy

After reading several other books about the sexual revolution, I decided to read this lengthy biography of Alfred Kinsey, who is perhaps one of the most well known sex researchers of our time.  This book explains how detailed his “interviews” with subjects were and also how they weren’t exactly scientifically credible.  However, his published studies sold tons of copies, resulting in worldwide recognition and much public scrutiny.  Kinsey was a very liberal man who personally experimented with homosexuality and other practices considered taboo at the time.  Great attention in this work is given to his extensive collections of gall wasps and pornography.  Overall, I found that Kinsey had led a much more interesting life than I had expected to read about.

Sight Unseen by Georgina Kleege  

Sight Unseen is one of the most thorough books I’ve read about blindness due to Georgina Kleege’s ability to place her own blindness in the context of the sighted world, while also critiquing how blindness is portrayed in popular culture.  I particularly enjoyed reading about the methods and technology she uses to read and teach college writing and literature courses.  Also, her description of the low level at which she is currently able to see was very clear and brought attention to the fact that the majority of people that are classified as legally blind can see at some level.  Tying everything together were Georgina’s reflections on growing up, losing her sight, and how it affected her family and other relationships.   

Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen: Reflections at Sixty and Beyond by Larry McMurtry

Larry McMurtry, the author of Lonesome Dove, The Last Picture Show, and Terms of Endearment among many others, is a resident of Archer City, a speck of a town about 20 miles south of Wichita Falls.  I’ve ridden my bike there many times and wondered what it would be like to live in such a place.  McMurtry owns several antiquarian bookstores and houses a large collection at his store Booked Up, in the downtown corner of Archer City.  In Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen, McMurtry explains how his grandparents were original settlers of Archer City and lived through the clearing of the prairie of Indians and buffalo, the rise of cowboy culture, and the fencing in of the West.  McMurtry details how Walter Benjamin’s theory about the death of storytelling fits with life in Archer City and his personal connection to the short history of the area.  Interwoven are his ideas about how and why life has changed so drastically in the past century and how he found his way into the world of books, as a reader, writer, and collector.  Recommended!   

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